THE PRESIDENT: When I see all of you here with your
enthusiasm -- this is actually the first event I have attended --
(applause) -- and I see the pictures of all the thousands and
thousands of people in the shivering call who were out on the Mall
yesterday, all the children taking in the exhibits, and I sense the
freedom and the feeling and the enthusiasm on the streets as I --
maybe this will be better the second time around. (Applause.) It's
pretty good, I like it. (Applause.)

I want to thank my friend, Alan Solomont, for taking on
this immense responsibility. And obviously, I'm indebted to my
longtime friend, Governor Roy Romer and to Steve Grossman and to
Carol Pinskey. I'll have more to say about all that the day after
tomorrow.

I thank Don Fowler and Chris Dodd and Marvin and Scott
and everybody else that helped us so much in the last four years.
And I ask you only to think about this -- I have to be very careful
because I've been thinking about nothing but my inaugural address; if
I'm not careful I'll give you half of it right now. (Laughter.) How
can I say this differently?

I actually, in the darkest days of 1994 and '95, always
believed that we would be doing this on this day. (Applause.) But
it didn't have so much to do with me or even our wonderful Vice
President, but what I think about the American people, what makes us
tick, where we are in history and where we have to go. And I ask you
to think about that, because we've come a long way here in building a
party that is true to the internal principles of the Democratic
Party, but geared to the challenges of the present and the future.

And I've run my last race, but we haven't done all the
work we need to do for our country for the 21st century. And we have
to maintain both the commitment to progress and a commitment to
community. That's what's unique about us. We believe that we'll all
do better if we all do better. That's what's unique about the
Democratic Party. (Applause.)

And so, with a heart full of gratitude for all that has
been done for me, I ask you to redouble your efforts and to renew
your commitment, and not to grow exhausted from doing so in the next
few years. Because we've only begun to scratch the surface of what
can be done to mobilize younger people, what can be done to mobilize
people who have never been active in political affairs before to
participate, financially and as citizens, in our common endeavors.
And we have to do that. We have to leave here with a system, with a
structure for ordinary citizens to participate more in the affairs
and the life of this party in order to have really been successful.

In that regard, I would like to mention two other
people. First of all, I would like to thank Reverend Jackson, who is
over here to my left, appropriately enough -- (applause) -- who has
never flagged in his belief in our country and his determination to
get more people involved in it, to get people to register to vote, to
participate. We all need to do more of what he has been doing.

The second thing I'd like to ask all of you to do on
this Sunday, each in your own way, is to say a prayer of gratitude
for the life of Senator Paul Tsongas. You know, we had an
interesting campaign in 1992. I had read both the books that he had
written by that time. We went all over New Hampshire, in that
wonderful atmosphere that only New Hampshire has where you're
supposed to meet every voter three times before they take you
seriously. (Laughter.) And we had -- he and I had these crazy ideas
that people might actually not object to policy wonks running for
President. It might be a good thing if the President actually knew
something about the problems of the country. (Laughter.) And it was
really quite an interesting phenomenon, the town meetings that the
two of us had and the crowds that would show up just to hear people
talk about the issues.

And my admiration for him and for his sense of
commitment to our future, to the integrity of the political process,
and to the ultimate ability of the America always to renew itself
only grew with all of our contacts. Our country is deeply indebted
to him for having had the courage to stay active in public life and
to battle through his own illness and his own pain and his own
disappointment to continue to fight for America's well-being. That
is citizenship in the best sense.

So I ask you to say a prayer of gratitude for the life
and the soul and the family of Paul Tsongas. (Applause.)

Finally, let me encourage you to have a wonderful time.
This is supposed to be fun in the best sense. I hope you enjoy it.
And I hope every day for the next four years you will always be
immensely proud of what you did to make this day come about.